Microsoft has amassed a whopping 27 million downloads of its Office for iPad app, proving just how much Apple consumers wanted the classic productivity suite.

The announcement was made by Julia White, GM for Microsoft Office, at the TechEd North American 2014 event in Houston, according to ZDNet.

The figure is more than twice that reported by Microsoft on Twitter just over a month ago. It secured 12 million downloads by April 3, despite only launching on March 27.

The number will be vindication for the move to allow long-time rival Apple access to classic Windows software.

"If it had been done earlier, it would have been better for Microsoft frankly," Apple's CEO Tim Cook said last month, and those words seem even truer today.

Subscribers

However, the download figures don't necessarily mean more money for Microsoft, as the app itself is free, but provides a read-only experience of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. To actually create content, users need an Office 365 subscription.

In its third quarter earnings report for its fiscal year 2014, Microsoft reported 4.4 million Office 365 Home subscribers, a jump of nearly 1 million compared to the prior quarter. That figure will likely be even higher with the expansion to the iPad.

The market responded well to the new Office for iPad figures. Microsoft's shares were up $0.43 (£0.25, AU$0.46), or 1.09 per cent, to $39.97 (£23.73, AU$42.76) at the time of writing.